During the holidays, you don't spend, think, or travel the way you normally do. Even a little light-hearted consumerism can cost more than it should. Avoid shipping fees, financial missteps, and losing out on your just rewards with these tips.

Lower Credit Card Rates and Avoid Bank Fees

The first, most obvious, and least heeded advice for the holidays: Don't spend more on cards than you have in the bank. If it looks unavoidable, or if you're already carrying a bit of leftover balance, you need to get your rates lowered and, potentially, your balances transferred to a lower-interest card. Personal finance blog Get Rich Slowly has a timely post stuffed with credit card rate-lowering advice, along with links to other sites sharing the things that can get seemingly made-of-stone creditors to budge a little.

If overdraft fees, low balance charges, and the other ways banks are making money this year are more likely to be your personal finance pain this year, gather up your worth as a customer and call them. Ramit Sethi, the clever guy behind the I Will Teach You To Be Rich blog (and book), has two examples of how he talked his way out of seemingly unavoidable bank fees. Once by simply asking, along with knowing a little history on his account, and another, more serious overdraft fee by not leaving openings for the representative to say 'No.'. Being the holidays, you've got a lot more leeway for explaining account mishaps as a likely one-time thing, so stick to your guns and rescue your money from fake credit and bank costs.

Don't Give Good Money to Companies with Bad Return Policies

Holiday gifts add up, but they can be tragically expensive if you buy the wrong thing, or the wrong size, and lose that purchase to the vagaries of corporate return policies.

Consumer Reports recently rounded up their ten best and worst companies for service, taking an informal poll of their editorial and research staff and looking for notable highs and lows in service, returns, and help. Even if you don't buy from any of the brands, it's a brain-jogging list of things to look into when you're shopping at stores or online. What's the price-matching policy if this gift goes on sale right before the holidays? How many days left until one can't return this? Giving a cheaper gift that you know can be exchanged is likely a lot better for both you and the recipient than a high-flying item that's a big question mark.

Get Free Shipping

Oh, it's easy to get free shipping at most online sites—just spend more than X dollars! And, really, why not buy 5 boxes of Keurig coffee pods as a stocking stuffer? But if you're making more practical purchases, look to the web's friendlier corners for help.

If you're truly close to a free shipping amount on Amazon.com, the trusty Filler Item Finder has you covered, with a generally useful/harmless item that fits the amount you need to cover.

FreeShipping.org compiles free shipping e-coupons from around the web—kind of like a more focused RetailMeNot (which might also have some free shipping codes, occasionally). It also provides a basic directory of which outlets are providing free shipping through certain dates. Keep it in mind when you're comparison shopping and two stores offer oh-so-close prices.

Finally, if you're locked in for a gift that's not likely to go out of stock, consider waiting until Free Shipping Day rolls around. That's when hundreds of online retailers waive their shipping fees, traditionally on the last day for guaranteed regular-cost delivery. Free Shipping Day happens on Dec. 17 this year—visit that site to see which retailers are already signed up to participate.

Keep Your Holiday Airline Miles

If you fly once a year to visit relatives for the holidays, you might be taking whatever airline offers the cheapest rate, or flying not quite once a year and losing your mileage points. It's not an inevitability, though, and you can keep your roll going in cheap or even free ways. Image via gordontarpley.

Money Blue Book rounds up some mile-keeping tactics, ranging from making a small withdrawal or purchase using your points (coffee, anyone?) to keep them "active" for another 365 days, to the straight-up phone negotiation method. I fly just a few times a year, though I tend to make a yearly trip from Buffalo to NYC to, among other things, visit the Gawker headquarters. This year, that flight came a bit later in the year than usual, so I was due to lose all my mileage points from the last two years combined. I called, I pointed out my year-to-year airline loyalty, and noted (with a bit of flair here) that it was a business-related trip I was taking (which seems to unlock a certain level of appreciation with airlines). Long story short, my points are being held for another month, and I'm building toward, well, maybe one flight in the future. But it was worth the five-minute call.

What annual, avoidable costs have you skirted this year, or in years past? We want to hear your tales of festive frugality in the comments.